Staveley Miners Welfare won the toss and elected to kick towards the clubhouse in the first half to try and take advantage of the late evening summer sun hanging low in the sky at the beginning of this preseason friendly against Goole AFC of the EvoStik NPL Division 1 South. But the blinding effect of that sun didn’t seem to faze the visiting Vikings much who scored from their very first raid.A left hand side corner fell at the feet of an unmarked Sam Colbear who stabbed home from 6 yards out with only two minutes on the clock.
0-1
Staveley very nearly hit back immediately when a neat passage of play saw Kurtis Morley feed Kieren Watson on the edge of the ‘D’, who then knocked it out wide to Ryan Watters who rode a challenge or two before slipping the ball back through to Watson who had drifted out wide in search of space; his cross floated towards the goal and at one stage looked like it might just creep in at the far post but a back-peddling Thomas Beaurepaire, in goal for Goole, was relieved to see it just drop behind the angle of post and crossbar.
Another Watson cross was headed out but only as far as Ryan Watters he combined well with his overlapping fullback Kyle Clarke whose right wing cross was gathered at the second attempt by ‘keeper Beaurepaire under pressure from Kieran Watson. It wasn't quite the Kieren Watson show but he seemed to be involved in a lot of the good stuff and just after failing to gather a delightfully weighted outside of the right boot through pass from Ellis Wall, he once again set off on a run after another Ellis Wall pass…
…This time Watson managed to gather the ball in his stride and was pulled back by a defender, the powerful number nine had hardly noticed the challenge and found Ellis Wall with a cutback from the byline but the scorer of so many important goals last season fired over.
In keeping with the theme is was Watson who came the closest to scoring for Staveley in the first half and unfortunately as it would transpire the whole gam… A fifty fifty challenge left Goole ‘keeper Beaurepaire in no mans land and a gaping open goal behind him. Unfortunately Watson had lost where the ball was and the confusion allowed the defenders time to get back into covering positions and he saw his eventual shot headed off the line by Callum Mackie.
On 29 minutes Goole nearly extended their lead when once again Staveley allowed an unchallenged strike on goal, this time it was Alex Varley who saw his header just clear the angle of Staveley ‘keeper Jason Fisher’s left hand post/crossbar, and came after a period of play which caused manager Brett Marshall to questioned wether his players “wanted it” enough.
This seemed to cause Staveley to step it up once more and Jamie York harried, chased and pressed and got the better of some sloppy over play from the visitors in their defensive third when he blocked an attempted clearance before laying off to, that man again Kieran Watson who in trying to get the ball onto his right foot to shoot allowed defenders to close in and clear. Ellis Wall was next to try his luck with a low side footed pass-shot which went just wide of the right hand post and just as it seemed only matter of time before an equaliser would arrive, Goole extended their lead when Jamie Coulson nodded home a Nathan Smith freekick just before halftime.
HT: 0-2
Pre-season is all about getting fit and trying out a few different things and in the second half whole sale changes from both sides meant that it was never going to live up to the first, and in fact neither side created anything more than the occasional burst forward…
Kieren Watson sent substitute Jamie Brown on a trademark run down the right and he returned the favour but Watson's shot was blocked and with about ten minutes left it was Kurtis Morleys spin and pass which sent Jamie Brown through on goal for the pick of the second half chances but his powerful strike on the run hit the side netting. Goole gave the final scoresheet a bit of a flattering look when Nathan Smith who was arguably their best player on the night scored from the penalty spot with three minutes remaining.
FT: Staveley MW 0 – 3 Goole AFC
